USB flash drives: How do they get damaged?

Hardware Hub Other Hardware
1

I put this in general discussion becuase its not a PC hardware thread, but more of a technology question.

The core question:

How does not safely removing a drive (yanking it) damage the drive or at least render it useless?

I am trying to relocate this information for a friend that believes the only issue is whether data is still in active transfer or not, and I am trying to find teh proof that there is more to it, even if it is unlikely.

Further details:

I am not so much talking about data corruption. Flash memory drives can be damaged or made useless if they are just removed. I remember reading an article about 10 years ago about the charge in the flash memory or something like that.

I know this is extremely rare, but it does exist and is why the annoying messages are there. 99.9% of the time, it is fine to just yank the drive so long as data is not in active transfer, but the OS does have active handles on the drives.

If anyone has an article link, or can explain this I would be greatful.

 

 

2

It's similar to yanking a hard drive out when it's in operation.

Flash drives are based off ntfs storage usually, so is your c drive yanking your c drive can render your os unusable same for flash drives.

I don't know how it could be rendered useless though I have had drives die on me because i didn't use safely remove. (I still don't.)

3

It basically ensures that no data is being transferred while youre trying to take it out. Its to prevent you from corrupting data, It wont break the flashdrive itself. Just could lose data if its in use at the time of removal.

4

At rollymaster, do you know why the drives died from not safely removing? That is what I am trying to find out. I had a drive die on me too, ever since then I have safely removed and never had a problem again. The internet is full of these stories, but I have not found a recent article to explain it.

 

5

no clue.

6

lol well thanks for responding lol.